Of Pirate Flags And Ocean Words
by MaximumVolume
Summary: Nami was afraid she'd lose them one day, there's nothing wrong with a few kind words, right? Nami and the boys.


Nami was afraid she'd lose them one day, there's nothing wrong with a few kind words, right?

Sometimes, Nami was overcome with a feeling of absolute triumph. There were times when she would be drawing a map or looking out towards the deck and the feeling would just hit her out of nowhere. It would come like a tidal force and it would wash over her in spurts of glittering sea foam and settle into lapping waves at her ankles, leaving her drenched and dripping. Today, she watches them all in their own little orbit, either laying or whizzing by in dizzy colors among their small ship and the orange haired girl feels like she can take over the whole sea with the best boys in the world.  
"Don't ever change, you guys."  
She whispers this to herself.

It was scorching that day, with the sky so bright and blue it almost didn't seem real. Nami was relaxing in the shade of her orange trees, too limp and hot to even move. She prays for strong gusts of wind, something to cool her cooking skin and tries to send word to the rain Gods in hopes of a small sprinkle. Even a passing cloud would be nice. Her silence is disturbed when a blur of red and blue comes spinning by her.  
"Ah, Nami!" Luffy backtracks and flashes her his wide grin.  
"Hi," she can't muster up enough energy to start a conversation, but he's blocking the sun so she doesn't feel too bad.  
"Here," he extends a hand out of nowhere, and it takes Nami longer than normal to realize he's got something clutched in his fingers. A cherry-red Popsicle is dripping from its wooden stick, glistening like diamonds in the sun and Nami backs up a bit before any of it can drop on her.  
Nami is confused at first, and Luffy clarifies. "It's for you, since it's so hot!"  
She's touched, honestly. Because she expected Luffy to just eat the Popsicle whole, stick and all. It wasn't really like him to share something related to food. He's still giving her his idiotic smile and Nami gently takes it from his fingers, realizing that trying not to get the red rivers of sugary liquid on her person was futile.  
"Thank you, Luffy," she takes a swipe and blushes at the sweet taste, doing so quickly since the sun was bound to turn her frozen desert into a pile of red mush in a matter of minutes. He laughs and goes skirting around the ship, even when Sanji comes running out of the kitchen, spewing curses at the rubber boy for stealing and eating all the snacks. Sanji kicks, Luffy laughs and Nami dips her head.  
She doesn't want any of them to change.

They're all settled at the dinner table, and it's a mess as usual. Luffy swipes food from other people's plates, Usopp is exclaiming to everyone his tales and Sanji is pampering her while scolding Zoro for being a 'moss-headed barbarian' and hogging all the alcohol. Nami eats quietly and quickly, because she hates it when people look at her eat and she's taking a sip of tea when she spots Usopp and Luffy shoving chopsticks up their noses. Usopp takes his from his nose and pretends to be a walrus and the sight is enough to send her into giggles. She nearly spits tea everywhere, as unlady like as that is, and immediately chokes. Everyone is alarmed, because she's coughing so hard that the wind is rushing out of her and Zoro gives her a hard yet helpful pat on the back.  
"You okay?" There's a note of amusement in his voice and Nami nods, eyes watering.  
"Don't touch Nami-swan, asshole!" Sanji fumes and gives the swordsman a hard kick in the gut. "You'll hurt her!"  
Nami is still laughing, her shoulders shaking and her throat burning, but the feeling is nice and free. She hides her face in her hands and in the chaos of the Going Merry's kitchen Nami can't help but wish that days like this would never end.

She's lounging in her chair trying to get some sleep when he comes sauntering over.  
If Nami was completely honest with herself, she would admit that she doesn't know too much about the Straw Hat's chef. He knows practically everything about her. From her favorite sandals and bracelets to how much sugar and cream she likes in her morning coffee. Her trivia about him is somewhat limited, she knows he came from a restaraunt in East Blue and that he likes to wear suits, she knows his favorite treat is nothing extravagant, just an ice cream sandwich. She knows that he hates crooked ties and has a thing for cloud-watching. She knows he loves to smoke and always keeps the same cigarette lighter in the breast pocket of his suit.  
Other than that, there's nothing else.  
Something is suddenly draped over her legs and she flinches before opening her eyes and seeing the one and only blonde.  
Speak of the devil.  
"Ah, Nami-swan, I didn't mean to startle you. I just thought you'd like a blanket, it's a little chilly today."  
It's at that moment does it finally hit Nami. And she can't help but let it slip out absentmindedly.  
"Sanji?"  
"Yes?" The blanket has been applied and it covers her whole body in cozy cotton.  
She knows something about herself that Sanji has missed.  
She gives a smile, nice and sincere and just a little sly.  
"Did you know that I love you?"

They're watching the stars that night. It's a beautiful show of ink and light, with the moon stamped into the sky and stars stitched around it. They are both quiet, no one dares to break the silenc, it's too peaceful. So all she does is watch the black-haired sharpshooter out of the corner of her eyes and smiles contently to herself because this is the first time in a long time that she's felt completely and utterly invincible. Usopp finds Nami looking at him and he returns the gesture, grinning from ear to ear.  
It couldn't get better than this.

She's afraid she'd lose them one day. Nami is afraid that one day she'll wake up in the same haunting room, drawing maps till her fingers bled and stealing from pirates while a pair of demonic eyes watches her from above. She's afraid that she would have to go back to her old ways, stealing from the young and the old, slinking like an alley cat from village to village, scamming people, robbing, lying, cheating. She's made up countless stories to get pity from strangers, used several maneuvers in order to obtain what she wants, she'd pin up her hair and show her skin if that's what it took, she'd be the object of every man's desire for a few beli. It was a hard art to master, and she's perfected it in a span of eight years. Old habits die hard, and when she comes back to the Going Merry, twirling a gold necklace around her finger with a plethora of bills sticking from her shirt, it's Zoro that notices first.  
"Where'd you get all that?" He asks, eyeing the accessory and wrinkled money. Her pockets are bulging and rings glimmer on her thin fingers. There's a slight wobble to her walk, and her hair is sticking out in places.  
"Nowhere," Nami sings, Zoro thinks she's drunk but there's no blush to her face. She passes by him with a swish in her hips and before she can react, he's placed a hand over her wrist.  
He doesn't look at her, but he speaks anyway.  
"You don't have to do this anymore," the words are kind and gentle, a friend who is truly concerned and Nami freezes. Zoro was smarter than he let on, he had an inkling into Nami's suffering, he had a general idea as to what she would do in order to get by, bit by bit to save hundreds of lives. And deep inside, now that he's gotten to know her, it unsettles him.  
Cool and confident, the Navigator brushes his fingers from around her wrist and flashes him a smile, big and fake.  
"Old habits die hard."  
She's been doing this all her life, she doesn't like it, but that's the way it works. And a couple of boys can't change that.  
They can't, right?

He's cut up and bloody when he comes to her.  
Nami is panicked, fidgeting where she stood because he's bleeding and bruised and there's a sway when he walks and he's bleeding for goodness sake, not just the normal type of bleeding, where a simple band aid can fix it, the crimson comes sliding down in puddles and every inch of his rubber body is cut and bruised and dirty.  
"What the hell!"  
"I'm fine, Nami, really."  
"You're bleeding everywhere!"  
She knew he went fighting like he usually does, facing some opponent with bull headed determination and she sat there waiting for him worriedly. If he wasn't in such bad shape, she would have hit him above the head for being so reckless. Luffy sees the worry in her eyes, sees the frown forming on her face and decides to take action. He places his precious straw hat atop her head. Nami feels the rough texture of the straw and feels his smile hit her heart with such intensity she's surprised it didn't rip from her chest.  
"Shishishishi, it's okay Nami, I'm here now!"

Sometimes Nami feels like she could fly. She feels floaty and happy and utterly peaceful, that same tidal wave would come full throttle and it almost makes tears come into her eyes. Because she has to be the luckiest girl in the world, traveling with these boys who set her heart on fire and made her believe for once in her entire life. There were times when Nami wanted to fall through the clouds and plummet through the air because no matter what these boys would catch her and she would do the same for them because they gave her the sweetest taste of freedom and her heart nearly bursts from the love she feels for her spontaneous crew.  
She was their navigator, and she loved every single one of them.

When they come back to the ship, they're ragged and irritable and sweaty. Nami was busy looking out over at the ocean, and furrowed her eyebrows at them, a frown pulling at her lips.  
"What's the matter guys?"  
They cast each other annoyed glances, all except for Luffy, who was grinning as usual and all is silent until Usopp goes sliding up to the red haired girl and holds out his hand. In the center of his palm are beads the color of the ocean, turquoise, sea-foam green, whatever you want to call it. They glittered in the summer sun and Nami gazed at them the way she did gold under her skillful eye.  
"These...are for me?" It's a stupid question, really. Because who else on the ship is female and would appreciate such a gift? Usopp laughs and nods.  
"Yeah, they go in your hair, see?" He turns her around and gathers her orange mane in his hands and pulls it back into a ponytail. Carefully, he intertwined the beads in her hair and turns her back around. They dangle nicely from her hairdo and it's Zoro who grabs a silver pan from the kitchen and hands it to her. Nami peers into the kitchenware and gasps, the beads make her look completely different. Her eyes are big and shiny, her features delicate, and the accessory is the cutest thing she's ever seen, and it all fits so nicely in her ginger locks.  
She puts the pan down and looks at the four boys, who are now sporting grins. It must have taken forever trying to find a gift for her, and it couldn't have been easy what with the boys being...themselves.  
Suddenly, Nami envelopes them in a hug, which was hard to do since there were four of them, but she tries her best and tackles them all in a burst of appreciation. They're all on the verge of swaying, but they manage to keep their balance and she's practically laying on them but none of them seem to mind.  
"Happy Birthday, Nami."

She was a vision of beauty.  
The boys of the Straw Hat crew gazed in wonder as Nami stood on deck with her arms in the air, laughing with the rain. Her hair was a fireball raging in the midnight storm, it blew back in ember wisps and sparks seemed to crackle and spit at the ends as it shimmered like a upward firework exploding in the sky. It was horrendously cold that night, so she put in a sweater which was now soaked through and left her legs bare. She had brought them through the biggest storm they ever saw, and victory fell with the raindrops, splattering her with shades of confidence and power. They watched the lightening sear across the sky and the navigator looked like something from an aicent tale, a siren of the sea in the fairy tale books Usopp liked to read as a child.  
She laughed at the clouds, gorgeous and magnificent and everyone knew that this night was hers.

"I love you guys."  
The words were said in the silence of night, when Nami couldn't sleep and the boys piled into her room. She resisted at first, she wasn't a six year old, she could handle herself, but Luffy's persistent pleading and Usopp's reasoning made her give in and they laid themselves out on her floor in a heap of pillows and blankets. As a rule, Nami slept in her bed and said that if even one of them tried to sneak in next to her there would be hell to pay, and with that topic covered, they all lay in comfortable silence. That is, until Nami spoke.  
She whispered them but they reached the ears, Sanji went into his usual lovesick mode and declared that he, indeed, loved her to and went on rambling about the means of marriage until Nami cut him off with the threat of making him sleep out in the hall. Each boy looked at her curiously, because she had never said anything like that before. Sure, she had said it once to Sanji, but other than that, Nami didn't really display any sort of affection aside from her usual beatings and daily nagging.  
This thought came to her, albeit with a small bit of shame and guilt. Maybe I should fix that, she muses with a frown. Luffy's joyous laughter shakes her from her thoughts and he speaks for all of them with light in every word.  
"We love you too, Nami!"

It's only when they've finally gone asleep does Nami say it, still slightly awake and gazing at them all.  
"Don't ever chane, you guys."  
She falls asleep right after.


End file.
